When talking about the different learning games and the anti-smoking game, it made me think of the game Perfect Vermin, released in 2020. The game has the player go through four levels and kill imposters–deadly aliens disguised as normal office supplies and fixtures. In the beginning of the game, there is a normal no-smoking sign in the elevator, mostly unnoticed because people are used to seeing it around.
However, as you make it through the levels (which are the same repeated area with new changes to the mechanics), the no-smoking motif of plastered warnings increases, along with the announcer character growing increasingly sick with a pile of cigarettes next to him. It starts subtly, then gets increasing in your face as the character grows sicker and is unable to pretend everything is okay.
It starts as what appears to be a normal human versus monster game, and ends with the character in a doctor’s office, being told their diagnosis, along with an explanation of why the game is a game about killing imposters: cancer cells look like normal cells.
To me, this is an extremely good mixture of the medium informing the message, as well as the message being poignant. While it “teaches” very little compared to a math game, I think it functions in a similar way, bringing awareness through telling a story and showing futility through gameplay and narrative.
This game interestingly contrasts with the distinctions we’ve made this week about whether games are overtly didactic; typically we’ve been saying either games are or are not overtly didactic, but I think this falls in an interesting gray area where the game grows more didactic as it progresses.